User blog:Benderboyboy/I Sometimes Gets Serious and Check Analytics
I finally have a few days off to myself, so here's some serious stuff that I want to get off my chest. In no way is this post related to the MS hiatus thing. It's just something that's been bugging me since fanfiction introduced it's readers statistics all those years ago and reignited when JukePop with its author analytics. Here's the sad thing about being an author. It's generally a very introverted lifestyle. The world behind out computer screens and pen and paper is our own. We don't get to openly share its entirety, even in our books. I'm sure there are corners of Middle Earth that Tolkien did not tell us, witch and wizards of unique standing that Rowling don't talk of. But we need the exposure for our works to be recognize. Labouring away behind the page is a solo task. People don't - no, can't intrude into that world while we write it. It's just damn near impossible. So when we do put out our stories, we're basically putting out bits of our hearts and minds. We're opening our souls to the world to read and critique and hopefully, and most importantly, enjoy. Personally, I don't have the time to read every story out there, because I'm already five books behind schedule in my own home. But that does not mean I don't like your story. I just haven't had the chance to read it yet, and I may never do. There's this thing I noticed amongst true writers. Yes, I said true writers. They are the people who write for the love of writing. Who write for a living. Who write for people. Who write to tell stories. The fantasy world we create aren't just for us to enjoy. It's for everyone. And every one of these writers are very supportive. They tell you where you're wrong, where you're right. Their reviews are never useless, always informative. The community, though very, very apart with all our different forums and blogs, is strong. As of next month, I would have been writing for 7 years. It's a big thing for me. If I had wrote the 2 hours a day as I've planned, for every day for the past 7 years, I would have been writing for around 5000 hours. That's halfway to the 10000 hours said to be needed to master a skill. I can't tell you guys how many times I've thought of quitting writing, and how many times it has drawn me back. Take it from me everyone, writing is hard. It's probably one of the hardest form of art out there. Painting universes with black, squiggly lines is probably one of the toughest thing anyone can do. So I'm going to share something that pretty much everyone here will not believe. My analytics for 139: In Evening. From Febraury 1st, 2014, In Evening had a total of 110 unique views for the prologue. For every subsequent chapter, I have an approximate average of 1 to 2 unique views. That's right, views. Not even votes. 1-2 views. My author analytics on JukePop is literally an 'L' shape, and I'm not misusing literally either. Oh, and that 110 views includes anonymous users too. I have 34 +votes for a 14 chapter story. That averages out to 2.5 votes per chaper I churn out. That's a pretty steep dive from the 8 per chapter I had when In Evening was just a JP Draft. What I'm trying to say is, if you look at your author analytic and see anything even close to resembling mine, it could likely drive you to suicide. It's that depressing to look at. I can blame my original shitty cover or the revenge review. I can even blame every single person that ever existed as to why In Evening is in such a sad state. I can even blame myself for being not that good. But at the end of the day, it's no ones' fault. And I carry on writing. Because really, I either do that or give up. So here's my advice to newcomers or people newer than I am to be introduced to this terrifying, ruthless, wonderful world. Love writing. Love story telling. When you text someone, make your texts neat and as beautiful as a practiced penmanship. When you're taking a crap, conjure up worlds to run around. When you're writng, write for everyone else. I love writing. If you cut off my arms, I will type with my feet. I won't give it up no matter what, especially to something like lack of readership (again, I'm serious this has nothing to do with MS). As long as I have even one reader, I will keep writing. So I better be ready to write for ever, cause I'll always read the world I've created. Category:Blog posts